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B.C. reports one more COVID-19 death, 33 new cases

Specimens to be tested for COVID-19 are seen at LifeLabs after being logged upon receipt at the company's lab, in Surrey, B.C., on Thursday, March 26, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

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VANCOUVER --
Another person has died of COVID-19 in B.C., bringing the death toll in the province to 112, health officials announced Friday.

They also announced 33 new cases of the coronavirus, for a total of 2,145 cases in the province.

Of those, 79 people are in hospital with the virus, including 24 in intensive care units. Those numbers continue the downward trend in hospitalizations the province has seen since early April. Officials have previously said hospitalizations are a key indicator of the severity of the pandemic in British Columbia.

Among the new cases announced Friday are two at the Superior Poultry processing facility in Coquitlam, which now has 52 confirmed cases of COVID-19, up from 50 reported on Thursday.

At the same time, the number of cases officials reported at United Poultry Ltd. in Vancouver was lower on Friday than it had been Thursday, a change that corrected a "reporting error" in Thursday's data. There are 35 confirmed cases at United Poultry, not 42.

Officials also announced one new case associated with the ongoing outbreak at Mission Institution medium security federal prison in the Fraser Valley. The total number of cases among inmates and staff there is now 133.

On Thursday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said there were 120 inmates and 12 staff who had tested positive at the prison. Friday's update did not indicate whether the new case was an inmate or a staff member.

There have been no new outbreaks recorded in long-term care or assisted-living facilities, meaning there are still 21 such outbreaks ongoing, as well as three outbreaks in hospital acute care units.

A total of 12 outbreaks at care facilities have now been declared over.

Of B.C.'s 2,145 cases of COVID-19, most are located in the Lower Mainland, with 823 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region and 978 in the Fraser Health region.

Elsewhere in the province, there are 174 cases in Interior Health, 121 cases in Island Health and 49 in Northern Health.

A total of 1,357 people who have tested positive for the virus in B.C. are now considered fully recovered, meaning the number of active cases in the province is 676.

Friday's update from Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix came in the form of a press release, rather than a press conference.

“Today is National Physicians Day, as well as the start of National Medical Laboratory Week," Henry and Dix said in their statement Friday. "It is an opportunity for all of us to recognize the dedication and contributions of our physicians, our medical laboratory professionals and all our other health-care workers – the people whose responsibility it is to care for all of us. Let’s honour and protect them by doing all we can to continue to flatten the curve."